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Embedding Purpose:
How DuPont Is Linking Sustainability to Innovation

Sustainability – the responsible use of resources to ensure a clean, healthy and vibrant world for future generations – is evolving quickly as a global priority for companies and consumers alike. We used to define it largely in terms of environmental footprint reduction - for example, installing systems to limit pollution, or optimize their manufacturing processes to reduce energy and water consumption.

By Linda J. | Published 9 years ago | About a 3 minute read

Today we find this perspective too narrow as we face one of our planet’s most consequential challenges: how to protect and extend our planet’s scarce resources to meet the needs of a growing, increasingly connected global population. Engaged companies must understand global frameworks such as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and bring innovations to market that profitably and sustainably help address issues of economic empowerment, human rights, health and the natural environment. In short, a company’s commitment to sustainability lies not only with how it operates, but also with what it makes.

At DuPont, we understand that expectations are changing and that one of the most impactful things we can do is embed sustainability considerations early in the innovation engine that drives our company. That’s why DuPont is announcing our 2020 Sustainability Goals, which include a strong emphasis on innovation. Our new Sustainable Innovation Goal – the centerpiece of our 2020 goals – specifically commits us to develop new products that promote a healthier, safer and more sustainable world.

As a science company with leading positions in agriculture and nutrition, bio-based industrials and advanced materials, DuPont is focused on finding answers to some of the world’s most pressing questions. How to feed a rapidly growing global population? How to reduce the use of and dependence on fossil fuels? How to protect people and the environment? Solutions to these challenges require much more substantial commitments to sustainability, including in the conception, purpose, design and manufacture of the products of tomorrow.

For some time now, DuPont has been looking for ways to drive sustainability deeper into our innovation process. As a first step, we invested more than $5 billion since 2007 in R&D for products with quantifiable environmental benefits. Now we are setting the bar higher and doing even more to embed sustainability in our innovation portfolio – specifically by incorporating sustainability criteria early in the R&D process, when decisions are made about allocation of investment resources, prioritization of projects and market viability.

Through 2020, we intend to measure and report the quantifiable safety, health and sustainability benefits from our major new innovations, so people can clearly see how we are progressing against this goal in tangible ways. For example, we expect some of our new products to translate to improved food safety and quality, to deliver greater nutrition, or to lower pollution and reduce waste.

We believe that the many benefits that can flow from a more deliberate union of sustainability and innovation will help shape our future product portfolio. We will challenge every innovation in our pipeline/in development to consider what it can do to contribute in the areas of safety, health and sustainability.

DuPont has come a long way since launching our first antipollution initiatives in the 1970s; we have taken big steps in evolving toward a more integrated approach that sees sustainability as something essential to our being. We’re embedding it in the hearts and minds of people all across our company, including those who are responsible for turning promising ideas into innovative solutions. We believe – through hearing the needs of our customers and the voices of society – that a tipping point is nearing in the widespread adoption of sustainable approaches to doing business. And we believe that more closely aligning sustainability with our innovation process represents one of the most impactful things we can do to help society reach this critical threshold.